


Inheritance

by TheBodyBioelectric



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: A smol bol of adorable darkness, A+ Sith Parenting, Armitage Sux, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emo Rey, F/F, Force Ghosts, Good Phasma, Good Rey, Hurt/Comfort, I don't care that he's an attractive white british man tumblr can fite me, Kylo sux, Luke Skywalker's A+ mentoring, Memories, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Space Nazis, Trauma, force therapy, green lasers, red lasers, sad desert gays, sad metal gays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-11-19 10:17:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11311311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBodyBioelectric/pseuds/TheBodyBioelectric
Summary: Rey has always had purpose to her life. She had to wait. Then she had to survive. Then she had to become a Jedi. Not accomplishing those things was never an option.What can Rey do when her purpose is turned on its head?





	1. Creations

Her hand held out the lightsaber pleadingly. She hadn’t known what to expect of the last Jedi Master in the Universe, but now that she was in front of him Rey couldn’t put any of those feelings into words. His sad, tired eyes captivated her, and while she could sense warmth under the surface there was none extended in his gaze.

They stood like that for almost a minute before Luke finally broke the silence. 

“I can’t take that,” Luke said with a grimace. “It’s yours now.”

“I barely know how to use it,” Rey said. “I need you to teach me. General Leia said you could teach me how to use it.”

“A Jedi isn’t a lightsaber, Rey,” Luke said, and Rey suppressed a shiver at the darker tones that had crept into Luke’s voice.

“Well I need help with other things too. I need a teacher,” Rey said. “How did you know my name?”

“I’ve been isolated, not blind or deaf,” Luke said. “I can’t teach you, Rey, I’m sorry. You’re too old.”

Rey felt like her chest was being crushed. 

“Were doomed, then,” Rey said. “And all those people who died for the map, died to get me to you, died for nothing.”

“They didn’t die in vain,” Luke said. “I have stayed hidden here, on the assumption that Leia could handle the problems of rebuilding. She was always better at building things than I was. But I’ll come back with you.”

“If you’re not going to train me, then why?” Rey asked. “Why now?”

“I felt something I haven’t felt in long while,” Luke said. “A horrible scream through the force as billions of voices cried out before they were silenced.”

“Star Killer Base’s attack on the New Republic,” Rey said.

“So that’s what they called it,” Luke said with a raised eyebrow. “I’m surprised they didn’t call it the Death Star III. But yes, that event has led me to see that I can’t stand on the sidelines anymore. I would have to be in rare good form to cause destruction on that level. The risk of getting involved is worth it.”

“Master Skywalker, you brought balance to the force. You helped build the New Republic!” Rey said. “Surely you can’t think of yourself as only capable of destruction.”

“You have much to learn, Rey,” Luke said with a pained smile. “I didn’t build anything except a pyre to the Jedi and a glorification of mass murder. We should go, Chewie doesn’t like waiting.”

Luke took off at a brisk pace down the cliff side, barely looking where his feet were being placed on the treacherous cliff as he strode down the path to the waiting Falcon. Rey had to scamper to catch up to him, which caused her to nearly run into him when he stopped suddenly upon seeing the Falcon.

“She’s still a pile of junk,” Luke said with a slight tremor in his voice. Rey caught a quick, sad smile under Luke’s beard before he walked briskly up the ramp.

Rey felt numb as she walked back into the ship to find Chewie and Luke talking like old friends. While she supposed they were, in fact, old friends, it was hard to reconcile that this brusque sage would be friends with someone who had become almost a surrogate parent to her in the brief amount of time she knew him. 

She felt her chest constricting again as she thought about Leia, about Finn, about everyone else who would be disappointed in her. Han, who thought that she might be worth enough to save. Who died thinking she was worth leaving a ship to.

She couldn’t help but think he shouldn’t have bothered. 

She wasn’t anything other than a scavenger and she never would be. She had wasted any chance she had at being something more on a family that had never come back. All because she had acted like a naïve child. 

She quietly took her seat behind Luke and Chewie as they fired up the Falcon’s engines with practiced ease. After a few minutes, it became obvious that she wasn’t needed, she quietly slipped out of the cockpit back to her bunk.

The homecoming the falcon received was fantastic. The new resistance base, hidden in the crags of a series of islands on a mostly temperate oceanic planet, seemed to come to a complete halt upon seeing Luke return. Rey tried to put on a brave face for all the congratulations she received, but after the tenth round of her friends congratulating her for something she hadn’t even accomplished correctly she made up an excuse about needing to meditate after the trip and quietly slipped away to go gaze out at the ocean.

The resistance had Luke now. They wouldn’t notice if she was gone.

Rey still marveled that so much water could exist in one place. Everyone else around her seemed almost blaise about such large bodies of water, but to Rey watching the gigantic ripples on the sheets of water heave back and forth was more incredible than watching hyperspace go by. 

“You know Luke had a similar reaction on Yavin,” Leia said as she walked up to where Rey was sitting on the cliffside the base was cut into. “Although I think he was more amazed by seeing so much greenery in one place.”

“I’m surprised,” Rey said. “I would have thought he would have seen holos, at the very least.”

“Oh, he had, but it’s different in person,” Leia said. Rey waited until Leia told her why she was talking to her.

“Luke can also be frustratingly cryptic when he wants to be,” Leia said ruefully. “But I can tell something is bothering both of you.”

“Luke… isn’t here to train me,” Rey said. “He’s here to fight the first order personally.”

Leia leaned against a pillar from a long-lost civilization as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Because of course he isn’t doing the reasonable, practical thing,” Leia ground out. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to my wise old nerf herder of a brother.”

Rey wasn’t sure if she was supposed to follow Leia or not, but she was too intrigued not to.

Following a distance behind Leia, she caught the general pulling Luke into an empty conference room She frowned, as the thick door and walls of the room would muffle most noise coming from the room and making it difficult to eaves drop.

Turning to go find Finn and Poe, she stopped when she heard Leia shouting.

“Yes, you glory hound, training Rey is bloody important! In case you’ve forgotten, the number of powerful force sensitives we have that aren’t dead, evil, or busy moping on force forsaken islands is exactly two, so unless you want to train me get your head out of your ass and take her as your apprentice!” Leia yelled. 

After a pause that she assumed was Luke replying, Leia yelled, “What could I possibly be missing, Luke?”

Several tantalizingly silent minutes later, the door swung open with a tired looking Luke and a morose Leia.

“Oh, Rey, you’re here,” Leia said with a small note of surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Rey said. “You just left, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to follow you, or…”

“It’s fine Rey,” Leia said. “You did well to bring my brother back here. Thank you. I think you and Chewie have earned some time off.”

“What about the First Order?” Rey said disbelievingly. “No one else is getting time off in the middle of a war!”

“Everyone else hasn’t had their entire world flipped upside down several times in the last two weeks, either,” Leia said gently. “Don’t push yourself past breaking, Rey.”

Rey mumbled a thank you and stormed past both Luke and Leia to go to the Falcon. She considered talking to Finn and Poe about this, maybe venting to the both of them while curling up on a sofa while they comforted her. Until she realized that firstly, they probably both had duties to do during the middle of the day and she would have to explain that everything they had literally both been put under torture and almost died for was worth less than bantha shit. 

Angrily turning away from the dormitory, her feet led her back to the Falcon, which Chewie was almost finished refueling. 

“Where are you going?” Rey asked, raising her eyebrow at the soft roar he replied with.

“Do you have room for one more?” She asked.


	2. When the Force Closes a Door

Maz Kanata’s castle had transformed from the sorry state they had left it in when they had visited last. Hundreds of smugglers, bounty hunters, spice dealers and more were heaping rubble into piles and reassembling the castle the best they could. 

“Chewbacca,” Maz said in greeting as she picked her way through the work crews who were slowly relaying the foundation of the castle. “I am sorry for your loss, but it is good to see you again, old friend.”

Chewie mewled sadly in response. 

“I had not expected to see you again so soon, young Jedi,” Maz said, turning to Rey. 

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be a jedi,” Rey said. “The only one left refuses to train me.”

“Well, that is interesting,” Maz said thoughtfully. “I suppose you’ve come to help rebuild my home as well.”

“If you’ll have me,” Rey said.

“Hm. Yes, I think I have a task that would be best for you to accomplish,” Maz said mysteriously. “Follow me. Chewie, you know what to do.”

Chewie growled before walking off to help a group of humans lift a large stone.

“He knows what to do?” Rey asked.

“This isn’t the first building of mine he blew up by accident,” Maz said as she led Rey deeper into the ruins. “But he always comes back to rebuild it. Always so considerate, even as a callow youth. Ah, here we are.”

Maz opened a trap door that led down to a short hallway that seemed to end in a dead end.

“Here, I need you to open this door for me. I would do it myself, but I need to make sure my patrons, interesting as they are, put everything back together properly,” Maz said as she climbed the stair up to the surface.

“What door? I just see a wall,” Rey said.

“Then stop looking with your eyes,” Maz said as she walked away. “Come get me when it’s open.”

Rey scowled in bewilderment as she watched Maz Kanata’s feet disappear from view. She considered running after her, but discarded the idea. She had disappointed too many people who put their faith in her already, she didn’t need to rush to expand that list. 

Turning her attention to the featureless stone wall in front of her, she stepped forward to examine it more closely. The grey stone seemed to be roughly hewn out of the solid rock surrounding her. An ancient presence seemed to radiate out from it, almost stately while being completely without remarkable points of interest. 

Maz had said to use senses other than her eyes. 

Closing her eyes and reaching out with the force, Rey felt nothing unusual about the stone, other than it seemed brighter in the force than a stone should be. Holding her breathing steady, she placed her outstretched hand on the rough stone.

A rush of information filled her senses: a taste of cool water on a sweltering day, the rush of hot sand between her toes, the dank smell of vegetation. She opened her eyes, and she saw a large pool of water in front of her, sitting in a lush jungle. Pursing her lips, Rey looked around the new scenery. After a few moments, she realized that it wasn’t a holo, but also that it wasn’t real. The plants didn’t feel alive. Now that she was focusing on it, nothing felt alive.

Turning to the pool, Rey reached out to see if it was alive. Slowly, the pool began to glow the more Rey focused on it, emitting a soft yellow light the more closely Rey studied it. 

She felt a sense that she should dive into the water, and did so without conscious thought. After the initial rush of warm water on her face, the physical sensations faded and she was left with only the gentle memory of water and nothing more.

Shapes began dancing in front of her, squares and triangles, spheres, and shapes that seemed to be in four dimensions, despite the seeming impossibility of it. Pushing her hands through the light, she felt the gentle brush of liquid as she reached for the shapes. However, they danced away from her every time her hands got close. After several minutes of this Rey became increasingly frustrated with little to show for it.

Pulling her hands away from the stone, reality came back to her in a rush. Sitting down on what she realized were aching legs, she was aware that she in near complete darkness. Unsure of what to do, she simply sat on the dusty floor for several moments.

Soon, an orange glow came from the top of the stairs, and soon Maz Kanata shuffled into view.

“I’m sorry,” Rey said dejectedly. “I couldn’t open the door.”

“Well, I didn’t expect you to open it in a day,” Maz said with a smile. “I felt you reach out to touch the door with the force, though. That is further than most make it, on their first try.”

“I couldn’t touch anything,” Rey said. “That was the problem.”

“Physical sensations can prove distracting,” Maz said knowingly.

“Was the liquid supposed to distract me from catching the shapes?” Rey asked as she got up and dusted herself off.

Maz raised an eyebrow.

“I believe you are progressing far quicker than I anticipated, to have already started reaching for puzzle pieces,” Maz said. “Perhaps the lesson is to expand your focus.”

“So it is a lesson then,” Rey said as she let herself become excited.

“Perhaps,” Maz said. “Perhaps I simply need a force sensitive to open that door. Either way, you should get some rest on your ship. Good night, Rey.”

After a night on the Falcon, Rey practically ran down the stairs to the door the next morning, invigorated by the prospect of working on the door.

Sitting down cross legged on the floor this time, she spent several minutes breathing deeply to focus herself before she reached out with her hand and touched the wall again. This time the rush of sensations felt briefer, and the pool was already glowing when saw it. Diving in, she came across the strange collection of shapes for a second time.

Maz had told her to focus more broadly. Rey tried to wrap her head around those words. How could one focus broadly? Focus was an attention to detail, like counting exactly how many food rations you had reserved in case you were hurt or angered Unkar and keeping track of exactly where you had squirreled each stash away. 

Frowning, Rey thought about her own example. There wasn’t just one thing to focus on, but rather many things that came together to form a picture. She had to know where the food was, how much food there was, and how much food she was consuming against how much she was earning.

In a flash, Rey realized that by reaching out to touch individual shapes, she lost focus of all the others. It was like all the shapes were connected by an invisible string that moved the other shapes, and by reaching for any one she shifted it away from her. She would have to move them all at the same time if she wanted to move any of them to where she wanted.

With a smile, Rey thought about moving the shape closest to her, a small triangle, in relation to the others. Sure enough, the entire constellation of shapes shifted along with the triangle. Rey couldn’t contain her happiness at being able to manipulate the shapes.

It was only then that she realized she had no idea what to do with the shapes now that she could move them. Frowning, she searched for a hint among the shapes, but to no avail.

Deciding she needed to arrange the shapes into some kind of pattern, she started to the shift the shapes around. However this proved difficult as the shapes moved in their own tangled web, seemingly with a mind of their own. Rey tried more and more combinations, for hours instead of minutes this time. However, despite her best attempts to fit the shapes into a logical pattern nothing seemed to make sense.

Frustrated, she stopped moving the shapes and sat back to consider how they should be arranged again. Folding her arms over her chest, she noticed that the shapes all seemed to be relatively simple, with a few exceptions for the ones she had trouble wrapping her mind around. Closing her eyes, she took in several deep breaths and tried to let the shapes drift together in her mind.

Opening her eyes, she realized that the shapes were slowly drawing together towards the most complex Escher-like shape. Feeling excitement at her success, she continued to let the pieces draw together. Once the first shape slid into place with another shape, she realized it wasn’t a combination like a safe, but rather a three-dimensional puzzle. 

Growing excited, she began shifting the pieces around more rapidly, finding pieces that fit together into larger and larger sections. Soon, she had two sections, and taking a deep breath, she slid them together to create a strange object with only pentagons for sides. A moment after the pentagon’s slid together, everything faded to white and Rey opened her eyes.

Several seconds later, she heard a grinding sound deep within the stone wall she sat in front of. The wall began to move as she stood up wondering what would be revealed.


	3. A Bounty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read all Boba Fett parts in the original Jason Wingreen voice

With a rumble, the wall Rey was standing in front of slowly slid all the way into the wall to reveal another wall behind it. Frowning, Rey once again reached out with the force. Sensing an energy in one section of the wall, Rey reached out her hand. To her surprise, her hand passed right through the seemingly solid wall to touch a surface inside of the wall. Realizing it must be a hologram, Rey felt the space inside the wall.

Finding that the space seemed to be a hollow of some kind, Rey reached in and grasped what seemed to be an irregularity in the stone surface. As her hand closed around it, she felt it move. Curious, she pulled what she discovered to be an object out of the small hollow and past the surface of the hologram.

She held a small metallic object in her hand with faces made up only of pentagrams. She noted that it seemed to be exactly like the shape she had made to unlock the door. She was about to reach out with the force and see what exactly was inside of the thing when she heard a commotion come from the hatch opening. 

Tucking the object into her pocket, she quickly climbed the stairs up to the late afternoon sunlight bathing the wreckage of Maz’s Castle.

The sight that greeted her was alarming. A man dressed in green battle armor was holding a thermal detonator and had Chewie in a loose choke hold, surrounded by a circle of Maz’s patrons pointing blasters at them. A great deal of yelling, growling and overall noisemaking was occurring from the angry crowd, only to be silenced by the cold growl of the man in the suit.

“Where’s solo?” the man said. An awkward tension was only broken by Chewie’s plaintive growl, causing the man to readjust his grip. 

“I won’t ask again,” He said ominously. 

After a moment Maz Kanata stepped forward. 

“The man you seek is dead, Boba Fett,” Maz said. 

“How?” Fett growled. 

“He died saving others,” Maz said.

“Doesn’t sound like Captain Solo,” Fett replied. 

“He was part of the attack on Star Killer Base,” Maz said. “It was on the New Republic holos.”

The man paused for several seconds, a slight movement of his head the only indication he was still alive. After several seconds, Boba released Chewie and nodded to Maz Kanata. 

“Apologies,” he said as he coolly slipped the detonator back inside his belt. The crowd seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief now that it was apparent that Boba was no longer aggressive. 

“Of course,” Maz said with a slight dip of her head. “Will you be staying to help clean up the mess as well?”

“I have a job to do,” Fett said, turning to a very angry looking Chewie. “Take me General Organa.”

Chewie growled indignantly as Rey stepped forward, hand on her lightsaber. 

“Chewie’s right, we’re not taking you anywhere,” Rey said emphatically.

“You wouldn’t be my first Jedi,” Boba said menacingly as his head slowly turned towards Rey. With his unnatural stillness, Rey didn’t doubt it, but she still didn’t want to get pushed around.

“I think that if you kill us, these kind folks would probably have something to say about it,” Rey said. “Do you really want to fight every cutthroat and smuggler this side of the sector at once?” 

Boba seemed to pause for a moment.

“I want to take a job, not a bounty. If I leave, Organa will be worth more to me dead,” Boba said harshly. 

“How’s that?” Rey asked. 

“I want her to hire me,” Fett said. “It’s less trouble than getting her Bounty.” 

Chewie growled to Rey, who nodded. 

“Ok, Bounty hunter. We’ll take you to the General,” Rey said with a grimace. “We leave in a few hours.”

“I’ll be ready,” Boba said before turning and striding purposefully towards his ship.

“You plan to leave so soon?” Maz asked. Chewie let out a high-pitched whine indicating he would be back soon.

“And you, Rey?” Maz asked.

“I opened your door,” Rey said, pulling out the holocron from her pocket. “I found this.”

“I’m impressed. I’ve only seen one open the door that quickly,” Maz said in surprise. “If you can open the door, then you are prepared for the holocron and the information it has.”

“What’s in it?” Rey asked, curious.

“I think it’s best to let her explain it. She gets cranky if she doesn’t get to do the introduction the way she likes,” Maz said with a small smile.

“There’s a person in here?” Rey asked, perturbed.

“A very wise force user’s memories,” Maz said. “She moved on long ago, but she can still talk to you from beyond through this device. I think she will be helpful to you.”

“Thank you,” Rey said sincerely. “Was she a jedi?”

“Once,” Maz said. “Not when she made that.”

“So she was a sith?” Rey asked with a frown.

“Don’t think in such absolutes,” Maz said. “She was neither. Which is why she will be a better teacher for you than Skywalker ever could be.”

“I don’t understand,” Rey said.

“You will,” Maz said with a smile. “You have a weapon that will serve you well, and a teacher to guide you. As much as I would like you to stay, your place is out among the stars.”

“Thank you. For everything,” Rey said.

“You’re welcome. Now go help my boyfriend with that ridiculous hot rod he insists is perfectly practical despite all evidence to the contrary.”


	4. Motley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a snippet that probably should have been part of the last chapter, sorry. Have faith that more flushed out chapters are coming

Rey, Chewie, and Boba disembarked at the rebel platform to whispered discussions and sidelong glances. However, the motley group was allowed to meet General Organa at a loading dock, at which Fett had just finished explaining why he had come to the resistance. 

“So, to get this straight, you want me to hire you to fight against my son because he robbed you of the chance to kill my husband,” Leia said, her mouth a thin line. “And you expect me to pay you a king’s ransom to do so.”

“I’m worth a thousand of your smugglers and farm boys,” Fett said as he cradled his blaster like a child. “Pay for the right tools or don’t do the job.”

“The last time you met one of those smugglers, blind as a mynock, I might add, he defeated you with a stick,” Leia said with an unamused look on her face.

“And the last time we met you had a better outfit,” Fett said. Leia narrowed her eyes at Fett, and Rey was impressed that his body language remained entirely passive under the withering glare that had most others in the room seeking to avoid eye contact.

“Fine,” Leia said. “You’ll get your money, but it has to be in New Republic credits.”

“What? You can’t be serious,” Rey said. As Chewbacca also growled.

“When do I get paid?” Fett said. 

“Weekly installments. I’m hiring you out on contract for six standard lunar cycles,” Leia said with a grimace.

“What’s my mission?” Fett asked.

“I don’t have the details yet, but it’s a retrieval of a highly valuable asset that’s been reported loose,” Leia said. “Report back to me in three hours.”

Fett simply nodded and left the room. Rey’s face hadn’t lost any of its incredulity.

“He’s a bounty hunter,” Rey said. “One who tried to kill both Han and Luke. Why would you trust him when you can’t even trust me?”

“I’ve had to work with worse people. And I do trust you, Rey,” Leia said with a grim smile. “I just trust Luke when he says that it wouldn’t be good thing for you to train to be a Jedi.”

“And what happens when the New order offers him more money?” Rey asked. 

“He doesn’t break his contracts,” Leia said. “And unfortunately, we need him for a mission.”

“What could you possibly need someone only loyal to credits?” Rey asked incredulously.

“He’s also dispassionate, two factors that are going to be key for this mission beyond loyalty to the cause,” Leia said. “Rey, I want to send you on this mission too.”

“Why?” Rey asked.

“Because I trust you,” Leia said.

“Why not Finn, or Poe, or someone else you trust?” Rey asked. 

“Because they might be reckless,” Leia said. “I can’t risk that with this particular mission. You understand compromise. They don’t.”

“What is it?” Rey asked. “What could it possibly be that a bounty hunter and a scavenger are needed to go after that you wouldn’t trust trained commandos with?”

“Phasma,” Leia said. “We have reports that the Order is looking for her on one of their training planets.”

“So we’re going to go capture her?” Rey asked.

“We have reason to believe that she has turned against the Order,” Leia said. “She’s been labeled a traitor. However, nearly everyone else on this base, Poe and Finn especially, might not want to bring Phasma back alive, despite the intelligence she can provide. She’s done too many terrible things.”

“And why won’t I?” Rey asked. “She hurt Finn, killed innocent people. This is probably a ruse anyway. Do you think I have less morals because I had to survive on scraps?”

“No, I think it made you practical,” Leia said. “And I think you can see how having Phasma alive is better than having Phasma dead.”

Rey pursed her lips.

“Fine, but I want to be paid too,” Rey said. 

“Are you kidding me?” Leia said as she threw up her hands.

“I don’t need as much as Fett,” Rey said. “But I’ve been made aware most people get money for doing work. I never want to feel like I’m hauling junk for someone ever again.” 

Leia’s face softened.

“Of course,” Leia said. “I’ll give you the specifics once we decrypt the rest of the transmission we intercepted.” 

“All right,” Rey said with a nod. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

“You’ve earned it, Rey,” Leia said.

Rey nodded and went to find Chewie to help prep the Falcon for launch.


	5. Storm Clouds

The three-day trip through hyperspace with Fett and Chewie was as awkward as Rey expected it to be. Boba mostly kept to himself, cleaning his weapons his seemingly only break from sitting silently. Rey found it impossible to ignore him entirely, given the sinister presence he seemed to radiate, but after a while she could mostly ignore him.

With nothing else to do, Rey spent most of the trip looking at the strange object Maz had given to her. She couldn’t quite figure out how to use it, but when she held it, she felt calm and a sense of deep sadness wash over her in almost equal parts. Any time she had several moments, she would pull it out just to roll it around in her hands. She wondered if she would ever know what it was for. 

Eventually, they dropped out of hyperspace with a shudder almost a full day sub-light away from the planet. As they slowly crawled closer to the planet, Rey began to sense the force on the planet that was at first a distant glimmer and then a raging torrent of life and darkness. She felt a ripple in the dark depths, as if the people on the planet were singularly focused on one thing. 

Intrigued, Rey reached out further once she and Chewie had slipped the Falcon past the orbital patrols and entered the atmosphere. 

Following the disturbance in the darkness, Rey could see Phasma in her mind. The tall woman was hugging a speeder, weapons fire all around her, but she seemed almost indifferent to it as she deftly avoided the firing patterns as she raced through the old growth forest. It was beautiful, chaotic motion, with an occasional violent punctuation when Phasma would break from her dance to return fire with deadly accuracy.

It was how Rey always imagined a dancer at one of the theatres on Coruscant would look. 

Suddenly, a note was struck out of place. 

A thin wire was pulled across two trees, directly in Phasma’s path, almost invisible to the naked eye. Phasma sensed something, tried to pull up over it, but was too slow. Rey felt a sharp pang in the force, and she reached out without thinking. Phasma jumped up, out of the mount of her speeder as the wire ripped the vehicle in half, sparing her from the same fate. However, she was not saved from flying head over heels, tumbling violently as she hit the ground at full speed.

Recovering faster than should have been possible, Phasma unslung her blaster from her position on the ground. In a few sure, swift bolts, she eliminated the few speeders that had managed to keep up with her. 

After the last speeder crashed into a tree, Phasma waited several seconds before she stood slowly, clutching her side as she winced. Scanning the trees around her, Phasma took several deep breaths before breaking into a loping jog through the trees.

“60 km south of us,” Rey said as the Falcon finally started to break into the atmosphere. 

“That’s awful bloody convenient,” Fett muttered, followed shortly by Chewie’s roar.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Rey said as she pulled the ship into a hard turn. She could sense Phasma closer, a bright flicker of life burning brightly on the planet’s surface. A tense few minutes later, and Rey was slowing the Falcon down as it blasted over the tree tops.

Rey felt a twinge deep down, urging her to act. Opening the lower hatch while the Falcon was still in the air, Rey vaulted from the pilot’s chair and ran down the ramp at a dead sprint, jumping as she came to the end, Chewie’s howling chasing her out of the cabin. 

She instinctively threw her hands out spread eagle as she fell, igniting the lightsaber on the way down. She barely had time to see where she was before she reacted with the force, shoving as hard as she could against the rapidly approaching ground. She fell bodily into a figure in white just as they fired a blaster. From the sickening thump of the impact, Rey knew that the storm trooper she had just landed on had had the life crushed out them. 

Gathering herself off the tangled pile of limbs relatively uninjured, Rey found herself completely intact, if slightly bruised. The sound of blaster fire grabbed her attention as she noticed a lone figure pinned down behind a fallen log by half a dozen white armored storm troopers sending bolt after bolt towards her position. The trunk was being blown apart, and had possibly seconds left before the rounds would start to penetrate the flimsy cover.

Rey felt more than guessed that the figure behind the log had to be Phasma, her light shining brightly in the force even amongst the mass of forest around them. Rey felt a desperation to save this woman that she had never met well up inside of her, thinking of how much the first order must have abused her as it had abused Finn. Logically she could barely make sense of the feeling. Rey had spent long nights with Finn holding him as he cried himself to sleep when Poe wasn’t there, and he whispered Phasma’s name more than once. 

But she felt anger on behalf of this woman regardless. At the very least she hated the order, and Rey felt rage at the injustices she and Finn suffered spilling out of her fingers in long jagged lines that leapt through the air to strike the troopers threatening the person behind the log.

Lightning crackled through the air as energy shot from Rey’s finger tips, skewering the troopers firing at Phasma, eliciting screams of pain and full body contortions. Rey heard the vilest laughter she had ever heard echoing in her head, a strain from the cacophony of voices she heard when picking up Luke’s lightsaber for the first time repeated a hundred or a thousand times. 

After less than a second, Rey pulled back her hand as if she had been stung. The troopers dropped to the ground in unison, with only a few groans and uncoordinated twitches to indicate they were alive. Rey shook her now numbed hand as she felt feeling start to return in a prickling sensation several seconds after stopping. Moments later, a chrome plated head popped up from behind the log.

“That was a lot less messy than what I had planned,” Phasma said as she sauntered out from behind the log as she clipped a grenade onto her belt. Rey noticed that she was covering the limp she had from earlier.

“We’ve come to rescue you,” Rey said.

“Have you now,” Phasma said mockingly.

Their conversation was interrupted by the roar of the Falcon setting down meters behind Rey, with Fett and Chewie running down the ramp seconds later. 

“Bounty hunters, beasts and scavengers,” Phasma observed dryly. “I can’t tell if this is a hit squad, a rescue operation or the start of a bad joke.”

“You know that we’re here to get out,” Rey said in exasperation. “There’s no need to be snide. If I wanted to hurt you I would have just let your loyal soldiers finish you off.”

Phasma considered the situation for a several long seconds before walking towards the Falcon.

“Now that we’ve all decided to live, I’m going to get this scrap heap out of here,” Fett said under his breath as he walked back up the ramp to the cockpit. Chewie roared at Rey.

“I’m sorry for jumping with no explanation, I just got a feeling that I had to,” Rey said to the Wookie seconds before she was enveloped in a terrifyingly strong hug. After a few seconds, he ran up the ramp to join Fett in the cockpit. 

“So you’re the scavenger Ren got himself into his latest tizzy over,” Phasma said as the two walked into the ship.

“Yes, I’m the scavenger,” Rey spat out. 

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Phasma said. “But you are the Jedi from Jakku.”

“I’m no Jedi,” Rey said quietly. “But yes, I suppose I’m from there.”

“Interesting,” Phasma said as she removed her helmet to reveal a surprisingly handsome blond woman with close cropped hair and a light scar running over the top of her left eye. “You’re not what I expected.”

“It’s a pattern,” Rey said. “I suppose I’m the wrong age for you as well.”

Phasma’s head snapped back to Rey in a slight double take as pink kissed her cheeks. Rey looked away awkwardly.

“That’s not exactly what I meant either,” Phasma said as Rey led her to the one empty cabin the Falcon had while Phasma looked at Rey thoughtfully. “Of course, you are exactly the right age for something else, with what you did back there.”

“At least someone thinks so,” Rey said as she opened the door to Phasma’s temporary quarters. “Wait, the right age for what?”

“For the timelines to make sense,” Phasma said. “You would have to be no older than 20 and no younger than 18. The prophecy wouldn’t make sense with history otherwise.”

“Chewie, I think our prisoner is brain damaged,” Rey said as they passed the cockpit. Chewie growled in agreement.

“I’m not addled, girl, at least not about this,” Phasma said and paused. “Surely they’ve told you.”

“Told me what?” Rey said impatiently. 

“Who you are,” Phasma said. “You grew up among the skeletons of the imperial war machine’s last stand, all on your own? And you happen to be a powerful force user? You believed it was a coincidence?”

“Jakku was the arse end of nowhere,” Rey said. “The entire planet was one large, unfortunate sand pile of a coincidence.”

“Not quite nowhere,” Phasma said. “Not to a force user. Not to the heir to the empire.”

Rey snorted.

“The only thing I’m the heir of is about 20 ration packs I was cheated out of by Unkar Plutt that my parents paid for and he pocketed,” Rey said. “I peeked at his books once.”

Now it was Phasma’s turn to snort.

“It’s nice to not be speaking to an egotist for once,” Phasma said with a wry smile. “But the First Order’s prophecy is very specific: One will rise from strife and skeletons; the emperor risen again to take the throne. You’re the only force user powerful enough, and you fit that description.”

“I wouldn’t have thought you were one for hokey religions,” Rey said.

“I’m not,” Phasma said. “It’s propaganda. But you used force lightening, even though I assume you’ve never been trained to do so, and I also know what it was on Jakku that the Empire died defending.”

“What could possibly make you believe in something so ridiculous,” Rey said as she felt her feet drop out from under her.

“A high end cloning facility,” Phasma said. “You’re the Emperor’s daughter.”

“That’s,” Rey said as she tried to breathe through her constricting chest. “That’s stupid. I’m not even from Jakku. My parent’s-“

“You don’t have any parents, girl, not any more than me,” Phasma said not unkindly. “You only remember your Imperial keepers leaving you for the First Order.”

“If I was that important they would have taken me with them,” Rey said desperately.

“That would be coddling in the eyes of the Order,” Phasma said. “They value struggle. You can’t honestly say that Jakku didn’t sharpen your instincts.” 

“Get in the quarters and shut up,” Rey said darkly as she glowered at the taller woman. Phasma would have found it comical if she couldn’t also feel the cold rage emanating from the young woman. It wasn’t at all like one of Kylo’s tantrums, those were only scary in the way that an immensely powerful toddler was frightening.

Phasma felt the dread she felt in Snoke’s presence when she looked into Rey’s eyes. 

She ducked her head to fit into the small sleeping quarters, turning around before Rey closed the doors. 

“Jakku may have honed you, girl, but you can still decide what to do with that,” Phasma said softly, ignoring her own fear so she could sate some instinctual need to end the conversation with softer words. “You’re not conditioned.”

Phasma had thought all conversational instincts had been conditioned out of her. Also any response that might have that would lead to excess danger. She was distantly perturbed by her actions, but it barely registered on the scale of irregular behavior she had noticed in herself lately. That she didn’t find it as irregular as she should was also irregular, she supposed. 

Rey continued to stare at her throughout her muddled thoughts, glowering at her silently. Finally, she spoke.

“I don’t know why you’re lying, or why I can’t sense you’re lying, but if you wanted to upset your rescuers, mission accomplished, trooper,” Rey finished with a sneer that would have been sincerely cutting had it not taken so long for the retort to come. 

The door closed with a whoosh, and Phasma was alone again, although not quite so cold, not quite so wet, but just as lost as she had been this morning. Stripping off her armor as best as the pain she was in allowed her, she sat on the bottom bunk in her underclothes and tried to quiet her mind back to regularity again.


	6. Provision

Several hours later, the door to her room slid open, and Phasma braced for the torture to begin now that her captors had let her sit in anticipation and boredom for several hours. It was smart, it was how she had seen the all the best interrogators at Star Killer Base who weren’t blessed with the force started off a torture session.

She opened her eyes to see Rey leaning against the doorway, a bottle laxly held in her hand. The former scavenger hesitated a moment before she walked several unsteady paces into her cell, door closing behind her, as she sat down bodily on the floor.

Unsure of what protocol was acceptable, Phasma’s increasingly unrestrained mouth made the decision for her.

“Juma juice won’t change your genes, girl,” Phasma said. 

“Pffft, I know that,” Rey said with a slight slur. “I found a case of it labelled ‘problem solver’ in Han’s closet, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I never really had the luxury before.”

Phasma sniffed the scent of strong alcohol and said, “Even a backwater like Jakku had to have had a rotgut cantina on it.”

“Yeah, for pilots,” Rey said as if it were obvious. “Maybe working girls. Not for scavengers. Besides, it wasn’t like I could afford enough to get drunk anyway.”

“There might be a downside in the morning,” Phasma said as a strange but not unpleasant feeling settled into her stomach as she took in the bluntly honest woman before her. While torturing her would have indeed been the prudent thing, this interaction was far more enjoyable. 

“There’s more water on this ship than I’ve seen in my entire life outside the last three weeks,” Rey said. “I’ll live with the hangover.”

“To be young and reckless again,” Phasma said with a mock fondness she hoped masked something else that had crept into her voice. Rey slid the bottle across the floor to Phasma’s bunk.

“You have just as many problems,” Rey said.

“But why put myself on the same level as you when I find myself at the advantage already?” Phasma asked. 

Rey shrugged.

“If you want to deal with locating with the Emperor’s daughter the day after you’ve defected to avoid reconditioning, something would have saved you from having to do either, while sober, I won’t force you to drink the stuff,” Rey said. 

Phasma stared at the bottle for several seconds before picking it up and taking a slug. Rey gave her a wicked grin. 

“How did you know I was avoiding reconditioning?” Phasma asked. “I didn’t feel you enter my mind like Ren did.”

“I would never do that without permission. I’m not a monster yet. It’s what Finn was most afraid of,” Rey said. “And you seemed afraid of something terrible. So, I assumed.”

“I was not afraid,” Phasma spat, taking another swig from the bottle. “I was just confused as to what happened. You sensed uncertainty.”

“Seems scary to me,” Rey said with a shrug. “How do you not know what happened?”

“I just don’t,” Phasma said. “One moment I was checking into the reconditioning center, then a red haze, then I was shooting my out of the facility towards the forest.”

“I could help you remember what happened,” Rey said with her head cocked to the side as she steadily held Phasma’s gaze. Phasma hesitated.

“You could stop me at any time,” Rey said as she crawled over to kneel in front of Phasma as she gently placed a hand on her cheek. “I don’t want to hurt you. If I wanted to I would have done it already.”

“Why would you do that for me?” Phasma asked, shifting slightly at the younger woman placing herself between her legs. “I’ve hurt your friends. I’ve killed your friends. I’ve killed thousands. Why don’t you hate me?”

Rey shrugged.

“I’ve known bad people,” Rey said. “You don’t seem bad. I’m a survivor too. I know what it actually means to survive.” 

“Maybe, but you don’t know what it means to be a Stormtrooper,” Phasma said. 

“Do you? Or do you only know what they want you to remember?” Rey asked. “Let me learn with you.”

“If you knew what it was like to be a Stormtrooper you would know that they get to decide whether I know or not,” Phasma said. 

Rey continued to gaze into her eyes with a simple pleading expression that made Phasma distinctly uncomfortable, forcing her to turn her head under the intensity. 

She had held Kylo’s glare, Hux’s inspection, Snoke’s gaze, all without flinching, but this felt like it somehow penetrated deeper. She sucked in her breath and shifted her legs under her as she felt more than saw Rey continue to hold her in her terrifyingly earnest thrall. 

“All right,” Phasma said shakily after a pause that felt like an eternity. “I don’t know what you’ll find though. I can’t imagine there’s much happiness to find, and not as much goodness as you want there to be.”

“We’ll see,” Rey said simply as she extended her hand to side of Phasma’s face, her fingers gently brushing Phasma’s cheek before a calloused but somehow soft palm cradled her jaw. Phasma shivered as she felt herself slip into her own mind.

She panicked at first, having spent so long attempting to escape this place. It was disconcerting being thrust back into one’s own mind, firstly because it ripped away the illusion that she had access to her all her memories previously, and secondly because it was a reminder of something lost. Like a returning to a childhood home only to learn that it had fallen into disrepair. Or so Phasma supposed.

She couldn’t remember anything about her childhood, although logically she assumed she must have had it. 

As she thought it, she had a flash. 

A fuzzy feeling in her hand, soft, softer than the softest under layer of her armor. Sunlight falling onto a neat lawn with a large stone path winding to a mustard yellow wooden door. The ground seemed closer than it ever had. Looking down to her hand, she saw a child’s toy, a small plush animal she couldn’t name. It was starting to show some wear, but it could hardly have been considered old. 

Or so she supposed. Phasma had little information to reference on the subject.

An impossibly tall woman now called to her, over twice as tall as Phasma, with long downy blond hair loosely pulled into a bun. She felt a sudden stabbing ache in her chest, and wondered if she might have had a respiratory illness as a child. That wouldn’t have made sense, the First Order didn’t need invalids, and so they never would have taken her if she was ill.

She fell back into darkness once more, after this. She felt more than saw Rey’s presence, something bright and warm amidst the cold that seemed to have cut her to the bone as she tried to touch the distant memories she had pushed away for so long. 

A voice called out and she felt her body jerk in response.

“Parade rest! Attention! Stomach! Ready assault! Assault! Parade rest!” The voice barked a continual stream of seemingly disconnected orders to her, and she felt her body respond instantly to each one, falling perfectly into compliance. She realized vaguely that this must have been basic training.

“Parade rest!” the voice called out one last time before ceasing. A pause lolled over the group of children, of what age, Phasma couldn’t rightly tell. She was already as tall as the instructor though, so she must have been older than her last memory.

Five serial numbers were called out, including hers. 

“Troopers! Your marksmanship skills were all in the top fifth percentile for your platoon,” the instructor barked. “You will report for additional training at this. The rest of the company is dismissed.”

Phasma the quiet, orderly shuffling as she kept her head stalk still. 

“Now is when I will turn you from raw cadet troopers into something far more useful. I will break you down again into Commandos respectable enough to be in the Order’s Fist,” The instructor begins.

Phasma remembered the drills and exercises after that becoming less and less drills of routine. Targets would shift without warning, different runs would be assigned, sometimes with purposefully vague directions over harsh terrain. The instructors brutalized them less directly as they were taught to brutalize each other in sparring matches.

Phasma rarely lost those.

The training exercises bled into an actual battle, but one Phasma didn’t recognize. Which was odd, considering they should have left her with as much battlefield experience as possible after reconditioning if they wanted her to be the best commander possible. 

Phasma glanced down and realized she wasn’t a commander, however. She wasn’t even a sergeant yet, she was in plain trooper whites without insignia or shoulder cover, meaning she was only a private. Now that she thought of it, she didn’t recall her time as a private, only that she had worked her way through the ranks.

She was storming a beach against entrenched troops with her division. They were taking surprisingly few casualties, given their relative vulnerability to artillery and the open expanse of beach. The defenders should have been mowing them down, but most of the shots were hurried and poorly grouped, rarely hitting any troopers, and Phasma had yet to see them hit anything vital. An ancient E-web fired from a less than optimal position, and Phasma supposed that was what was blocking the air support from mopping them up easily.

She received a call in her helmet to provide cover for the trooper next to her to throw a grenade, and she did so, focusing her fire in the E-web crew on full auto as she heard a pin removed from a grenade. As she saw it arcing over her head, she pulled down behind cover before the crew could turn the gun on her. As soon as she heard the explosion of the grenade, she vaulted from behind the rock that had sheltered her. 

The grenade had mostly done her work for her, as only one man was left alive in the trench, and he was badly burnt. He had fallen next to the E-web, and he turned it towards her with what was left of his strength. His hasty few shots missed her by meters, and she easily dispatched him. 

In the distance, she heard a shuttle roar to life. The scream beside her alerted her to the fate of her grenade throwing comrade, whom the dying man had truly been aiming for. 

“FA-7798, the recruits are escaping! Nothing else is in range, you’ll have to use that gun to bring them down!” Her radio crackled. 

They wanted her to shoot down the shuttle. The enemy was escaping with their objective.

Recruits. 

Children.

These men died defending their families- which is why they were fighting like farmers, not soldiers, they weren’t soldiers, they weren’t even the enemy-

“FA-7798!” her radio barked.

She fired a single round into the firing chamber of the ancient artillery piece, disabling it in a shower of sparks as more of her comrades started jumping into the trench.

Suddenly something sharp and lancing shot through her mind in a shriek of pain that left Phasma completely disoriented. Everything was blindingly white, the light burning her skin, the smell of electricity and burnt flesh searing itself into her mind as she was unable to blot out the light, even when she closed her eyes. 

“Sir, this is her third reconditioning that hasn’t taken,” she heard a clipped accent say.

“Pity,” She heard an officer’s voice. Was it Hux?

“It’s highly irregular, sir,” said the clipped voice. “She hasn’t taken, but she also isn’t a vegetable. Her brain is behaving unlike any of the others we’ve seen, sir.”

“Fascinating,” Hux said. “Are the pathways weakening?”

Phasma lost what was being said as the pain held her entire mind once again before ebbing.

“Keep putting her under until then, and keep a full report,” Hux said. “She may have what we need for a special assignment.”

Phasma screamed. She didn’t know for how long, but it was the only way her mind could handle the pain. If she had a physical body, she imagined she could sweat, thrash, soil herself, anything to express the agony, but in her mind, all she had was the memory of a scream. 

Slowly, she felt the pain ebb. She felt limp, like a ragdoll that was trying to sit up all on its own. She opened her eyes and realized that she was gazing into huge, brown, crying eyes, and her first response was to reach out with her tired hand to brush away the tears. She barely even noted the unprompted nature of the act.

“Why are you crying?” Phasma said, and she realized her voice was hoarse.

“So much pain,” Rey said in a weak voice. “How can you live with so much pain? You were screaming and I tried to stop it but you just kept screaming and screaming and screaming and I couldn’t help, I can’t help, I’m so sorry-”

Phasma drew Rey’s small body to hers tenderly. She didn’t want to frighten the girl any more than she already had. Rey felt soft against her without her usual body armor between them.

“Thank you,” Phasma whispered.

“Why are you thanking me?” Rey said through sobs. “I just exposed you to unimaginable pain.”

“And a memory, from before the order,” Phasma said. “It didn’t know I wanted it. But it was… special.”

“It was worth it?” Rey sniffed. 

“Yes. It was,” Phasma said simply. She couldn’t speak any more words, so she cradled Rey’s body close to her. She hoped Rey could hear what she couldn’t say. 

Phasma had had a very taxing, very unregimented couple of days, and so she could probably forgive herself for falling asleep curled around Rey as she sat in her lap.


	7. Mist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this is probably going to be the last chapter for while. This story, while I really enjoy writing it and the concept, has a lot of third act problems at the moment and I don't really have the time or energy to resolve them. I hope I can come back to this story later, but I honestly don't know if that is going to happen. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and sorry if I stranded you in the middle of a story. I added the climax of the second part of the story so that there is at least some closure, but as an actual ending it's rather abrupt. Cheers

Rey woke to the sound of the door being beeped, seconds before it slid open.

“Interesting interrogation methods,” Boba said as he entered the room carrying a tray. Rey blushed as she tried to disentangle herself from where she was cuddled up next to Phasma.

“That’s not what I was I doing- I would never-” she stuttered as the bounty hunter set the food he was carrying down on a small alcove next the bunk they were sharing. 

“I’m just glad that someone agreed with me about the torture. Some of this crew are too noble for their own good,” Fett said. Chewie howled from the cockpit.

“I know you can hear me,” Fett said in an exasperated growl as he walked out the door. 

The closing door cut off the argument as Rey was left blushing and Phasma with a small smirk on her face. Rey realized she still had her hands draped over Phasma’s shoulders and pulled them back quickly. 

“I’m sorry, I definitely didn’t mean to make a move on you,” Rey said.

“Sometimes you find yourself in bed with someone coincidentally,” Phasma said with a shrug. “It happens.”

“Are you making a move on me now?” Rey asked.

“It would definitely be against standard procedure as a captive,” Phasma said.

“You’re not my captive,” Rey said.

“Can I leave this room then?” Phasma asked.

“Well, you aren’t not my captive either,” Rey said with a frown.

“Do you even have a procedure?” Phasma asked incredulously.

“I’m making this up as I go along,” Rey said as she put a hand to her forehead. “But I think you were right about the Juma juice.”

“I suppose we should eat the food the bounty hunter brought us so you can deal with your mistakes from last night,” Phasma said as she climbed out of bed and put on her now dry under mesh.

“I suppose we should,” Rey said as she guzzled down a water bottle from one of the ship’s water dispensers. 

Phasma sat down at the small checkered table and waited until Rey dragged herself into a chair with a fresh water bottle.

“So, If I’m not your prisoner, but I can’t leave, what does that make me?” Phasma asked.

“Someone who I don’t think is a danger, but who I want make sure won’t run away in an escape pod if I’m not looking,” Rey said as she slurped more water. Phasma sat quietly.

“So I wasn’t off base in that assumption,” Rey said as she pointed a finger at Phasma. “You do want to run away.”

“The resistance won’t treat me the way you have,” Phasma said. 

“They’ll come around to you,” Rey said. “They aren’t the Order. You’ll be safe there.”

Phasma smiled grimly.

“I think I would be safer as a merc,” she said. “Where the Order won’t know where I am and the New Republic won’t lock me up.”

“What about your memories?” Rey asked. “Unless you know another powerful force user or you can convince the Order to tell you, you’ll never know what happened.”

Phasma sat for several long minutes.

“You would really keep helping me like you did last night?” Phasma asked quietly.

“Of course,” Rey said earnestly. “I’ve seen inside your brain, and I’m still not convinced you’re a bad person.”

“You haven’t seen much, girl,” Phasma said. 

“I told you, I’m a survivor. Just like you,” Rey said. “I’ve begged, stolen, cheated, and occasionally hurt people for food. I would have added whoring, but there weren’t enough pilots passing through Jakku who wanted a scrawny human female for a madam to take me in.” 

“I’ve done far worse. You’re deluding yourself if you think otherwise,” Phasma said. “You don’t want to experience what I’ve done.”

Rey shrugged.

“No, I probably don’t,” She said. “But I want to help you, and for once in my life, I can actually make a difference. If you don’t want my help, that’s one thing. But you’re not going to talk me into not offering it to you.”

Phasma stared at the food in front of her for several minutes.

“Fine,” Phasma said. “I’ll stay. For you. Don’t be heart broken when I’m shipped off to Kessel.”

“If that happens, I’ll come visit you,” Rey said with a smile. Phasma couldn’t help the ghost of a grin as she turned back to eating her food.

After finishing their morning meal, since there wasn’t anything better to do, Rey decided to teach Phasma holo chess, a game she had only recently learned from Chewie. After Phasma grasped the basics of the game and how all the pieces moved, she thoroughly trounced Rey in what was supposed to be friendly learning game.

“I’m supposed to be teaching you,” Rey complained as she saw her second to last piece thrown off the board with a comical screaming sound by one of Phasma’s pieces.

“I’ve studied tactics over half my life,” Phasma shrugged. “I think you’re doing well for a beginner. Most of your moves help you in a local area, but you lose the bigger picture in the minutia. It’s common for younger beings to think that way.”

“Ugh, not you too. Does age affect everything?” Rey asked as she let her head rest on the table, causing the holo set to turn off. 

“Is this related to your comment about age earlier?” Phasma asked.

“Possibly,” Rey grumbled.

“You also said you weren’t a Jedi, but you can use the force, and you obviously aren’t a Sith,” Phasma said.

“Master Luke won’t train me because I’m too old,” Rey said. “On top of it, now I’m too young to learn tactics from you, I might be the reincarnation of a Sith Lord while I’m trying to be a Jedi, and I hear whispers in my head while I’m trying to help you with your mind. It would be more productive to bash my head against a wall.”

“You hear whispers?” Phasma asked. Rey suddenly became very still.

“Not, not in a crazy way,” She said in forcibly casual way as she emphatically shrugged her shoulders.

Phasma simply continued to look at her curiously.

“There in the force. I’ve been hearing them ever since I left Jakku,” Rey said with a grimace. Please don’t tell anyone.”

“Of course,” Phasma said. “Are you certain that it comes from the force?”

“No,” Rey said quietly. “But it sounds so unlike any other voice I’ve heard that it doesn’t seem likely that my brain made it up on its own.”

“What do they say?” Phasma asked. Rey looked down nervously at her hands before answering.

“Mostly just repeating things that make me angry. Talking about taking revenge,” Rey said. “Trying to convince me to use the dark side.”

“Do you listen?” Phasma asked.

“Of course not,” Rey said as she subconsciously pulled the mysterious item from Maz’s castle out of her pocket and began to roll it around in her fingers. “Well, mostly. I try not to.”

“Then you’re far better than most people,” Phasma said. “What’s that?”

“What? Oh, I don’t know, actually,” Rey said as she brought it up to eye level. “Do you know Maz Kanata?”

“The woman whose castle my troopers leveled, yes,” Phasma said. Rey frowned at that and pursed her lips.

“Yes, the one Kylo Ren levelled,” Rey said. “I don’t know why, but she wanted me to have this.”

“Maybe that ball can help with the voices in your head,” Phasma said. 

“You certainly have a way with words,” Rey said with a small frown.

“I state the obvious,” Phasma said.

“You’d be surprised how few people can do that,” Rey said with a wry grin.

“I met daily with Ren and Hux. I have an inkling of what delusion looks like,” Phasma said, and Rey snorted in amusement. 

Phasma was far too intrigued by the sound to even try to remember a protocol.

After several hours of holochess and several more of discussion interspersed with meals, the two women came to a very pregnant pause after Phasma mentioned sleep.

“So, about last night,” Rey said as she squirmed in seat.

“Which part? Because I thought you had learned your lesson about the Juma juice,” Phasma said.

Rey squinted at her.

“Was that a joke, trooper?” Rey asked. 

Phasma couldn’t tell what she had done wrong, but it certainly seemed like Rey was put off by her actions. Her mind raced as she tried to come up with the correct response to defuse whatever was happening behind the smaller woman’s eyes, but the Order hadn’t exactly prepped her on how to be a prisoner other than to tell her that death was preferable.

Seconds later, Rey’s face cracked into a grin accompanied by a low chuckle.

“You’re almost too easy,” Rey said.

“That’s- you did not follow protocol,” Phasma said, which only made Rey laugh harder. Phasma settled for a displeased huff. She felt something stir at the base of her ribs as she saw this terribly small woman laugh at her, and she had to school her face to maintain a semblance of protocol.

“I didn’t know the Resistance hired children to do their dirty work,” Phasma said as she crossed her arms. 

At Phasma’s words, Rey’s smile fell and the radiance dried up. Phasma suddenly felt like she had lost something through carelessness, and she had to fight down horrifyingly uncharacteristic panic at the thought that she had lost it forever.

“I’m sorry,” Rey said, shaking her head apologetically. Phasma felt an almost physical impact in her chest when she figured out Rey was reacting to her words, and how she hadn’t even considered that the recruits, including herself, were children first and foremost to Rey. She winced when she realized she had let something dark into the conversation, and she began searching for a way to cast it out.

“It doesn’t change it if you’re sorry,” Phasma said, grasping for an escape route. Rey looked away, pained.

“I meant that I don’t want you to feel responsible for fixing me,” Phasma said, eyebrows twisting in surprise at the words coming out of her own mouth.

“But I can help,” Rey said quietly. “And you’re not broken. You need healing, not fixing.”

“What’s the difference?” Phasma asked.

“Fixing you means there’s something wrong with you. There isn’t,” Rey said.

“I can barely remember my Mother’s face, let alone my childhood. I’d say something is irregular,” Phasma said.

“But irregular isn’t wrong,” Rey said. Phasma pursed her lips. 

“I suppose,” Phasma said unsurely. Rey beamed.

“Why are you smiling?” Phasma asked.

“Coming from you, that was an emphatic yes,” Rey said happily. 

“I didn’t say yes,” Phasma said irritably. “I said I supposed you had a point.”

“Which means you know I have a point, which means you agree with my logic, which means it makes sense for me to help you,” Rey said. Phasma snorted in annoyance.

“Well, since you’ve worked out that I’ve said yes before I have, when do you want to root around my psyche next?” Phasma said.

“I mean, whenever you’re up for it. I know last time was very intense, so it makes sense if you need a few days to recover-” Rey started.

“Tonight,” Phasma said.

“Or tonight,” Rey said. 

“I’ll see you in two standard hours. I need to clear my head,” Phasma said.

“Oh. Um, ok, see you in couple hours,” Rey said as Phasma stood up abruptly and walked back to her quarters. 

Later, Phasma and Rey were seated comfortable on the bed. This time, there was no barrage of memories as Phasma delved into her own consciousness, simply a clinging grew mist that condensed and clutched at her as she walked through it for what felt like hours. Eventually, the mist parted, to reveal a cold, grey day on an eerily familiar farming planet.

“You shouldn’t shoot because they’re loyal,” Phasma heard herself say. She saw a group of maybe thirty or Forty men and women kneeling in a field. Facing them were roughly the same number of children of varying ages, standing in a rough parade formation.

“Aren’t you mouthy for a farmer,” the imperial officer in command, a colonel, said as she turned to stare at Phasma. “Tell me, are you loyal to the Empire?”

“Yes,” Phasma said.

“Then you would hate the enemies of the Empire, and would strike them down without mercy,” the colonel said.

“Yes,” Phasma said in an unsure tone.

“So if I brought you a spy, a rebel sympathizer, you would surely kill her, with the threat that the destruction of both Death Stars brings?” the colonel said with narrowed eyes.

“I would,” Phasma said as dread coiled in her stomach.

“You would hold no sympathy in your heart for the scum that tried to alert the rebellion to our plans for a strategic withdrawal?” the colonel asked.

“I wouldn’t,” Phasma said.

“So you would shoot this woman?” the Colonel asked her as the tall blonde woman from her earlier memories was shoved in front of her. Grabbing Phasma’s gaze, she pleaded with her eyes.

“No,” Phasma said as she tried to keep the shakiness out of her voice.

“Shoot her,” the colonel ordered calmly as she pressed a gun into Phasma’s hand and then placed the barrel to the kneeling woman’s forehead.

“She’s my mother,” Phasma heard herself say.

“Shoot her, now, trooper,” the colonel ordered with a sneer.

“No,” Phasma whispered, unable to see anything through the tears streaming down her face. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t-“

“It’s ok, Phas,” Her mother said gently. “They’ll kill you if you don’t. I’m already dead, but I need you to live, Phas, be strong, live for me. It’s ok. I love you.”

The blaster stung in her hand after she pulled the trigger.

“Phasma, wake up,” Phasma distantly heard Rey say plaintively. Phasma was greeted by wet, red rimmed eyes. Eyes looking at her, through her skin, down to her core, down to who she really was.

She felt sick.

It was a small miracle she made it to the refresher before she felt her insides violently dispel themselves through her mouth, her entire body seeming to heave itself with each spasm. Phasma was vaguely aware of a hand on her back and the sound of someone crying with deep, guttural sobs. 

She had never felt so completely naked before, not during the communal showers or medical inspections or even Ren’s mind probes. She felt liquid slide down her face, hot and wet and sticky. She felt her face, trying to feel for the cut, to find the source of the blood, only to realize that she was the one sobbing, sending hot tears down her face to roll into the bowl of the refresher. 

She instinctually tried to stop crying once she realized what she was doing, but she was too broken to put much effort into it. All the walls had come down inside of Phasma, and she felt everything and it hurt. She was too weak to say anything other than to plead with Rey to make it stop in a whisper that was frighteningly close to a prayer. Rey held her as she lay, too broken to do anything other than sob softly into the smaller woman’s shoulder.

After what felt like a lifetime, Phasma felt strong, small hands pull her up to the sink. After washing the taste of bile of from her throat and drinking some water, she allowed herself to be guided over to the bed to collapse with a warm, comforting presence wrapping around her body and her mind as she drifted into an exhausted sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to get jossed all to hell before I even finish this fic, but I really like the ideas that went into this fic, so I'm inflicting them on you


End file.
